is not free from doubt, as it is not certain that the occasion referred to is that of Timothy's appointment to the office of presbyter. However that may be, the distinction between the two orders does not appear to have ever been observed in the Eastern Church, where the imposition of hands is in both cases made by the bishop alone; but in the West it is at least as old as the fourth Council of Carthage, A.D. 398, which decrees that 'when a presbyter is ordained, while the bishop blesses him, and lays his hands on him, all the presbyters who are present shall also lay their hands upon his head by the side of the bishop's hand.' 'Presbyter cum ordinatur, episcopo eum benedicente, et manum super caput ejus tenente, etiam omnes presbyteri qui præsentes sunt manus suas juxta manum episcopi super caput illius teneant.' The assistance of the presbyters, however, is not essential, 'never having been considered in any other respect than as adding to the solemnity of the ordination, and as a mark of reception into the sacred brotherhood of priests'.'

'Receive the Holy Ghost,' &c. This form is taken from the words used by our Lord on his first appearance to the Apostles after His resurrection, John xx. 22, 23: 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.' By this form the bishop confers the office of the Priesthood, and authority to pronounce absolution according to the forms prescribed in the Prayer Book; but both as regards the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the power of forgiving or retaining sins, the words of our Lord

1 Maskell, Mon. Rit. III. 205.

must be considered to be used by the Church in a conditional, rather than in an absolute sense: the gift of the Holy Ghost is received by the priest, if he is worthy; and the absolution which he is empowered to pronounce will be valid only in cases of true penitence.

INDEX.